Test Yourselves!

You lead the king of spades. Partner overtakes it with his ace and returns the two of spades, declarer following both times. What would you do next?

2. With only the opponents vulnerable, you hold:

Dlr North Vul: Both

Do you agree with your pass? If not, what would you have done differently? What do you do now?

Find your own solutions before reading ours:

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Solutions

You lead the king of spades. Partner overtakes it with his ace and returns the two of spades, declarer following both times. What would you do next? You should realize that declarer knows you have the king of hearts. Your partner did not respond to your one-spade opening and has already produced four points in the ace of spades. So, South will play to drop your king of hearts and will get lucky. You have just one chance. Cash the ace of clubs (necessary if declarer had a singleton club and could make a loser-on-loser play) and lead your lowest spade — then hope partner thinks to ruff with his eight of hearts to force a trump promotion. If he ruffs with the three of hearts, … fill in your own conclusion to that sentence.

2. With only the opponents vulnerable, you hold:

Dlr North Vul: Both

Do you agree with your pass? If not, what would you have done differently? What do you do now?

You passed because you hoped partner would reopen with a takeout double, when you would have passed again. going for a juicy penalty. The snag with this plan is primarily that two diamonds is passed out. Then you will get a penalty in 100s when you are surely making game, presumably three notrump. However. I agree that that is not likely, so passing is feasible. The alternatives are a negative double (to show your spades) and three notrump. I much prefer the latter. After you passed. the auction took a surprising path. Clearly. partner has long hearts and very short spades. probably a void. I think it is eminently sensible to jump to six hearts: bidding anything less is not right. If partner would read four notrump as (Roman Key Card) Blackwood, that would be feasible too. If partner is void in spades. you could well have a grand slam. But do you know how to show a void in answer to four notnunp? The Bridge Encyclopedia has six methods, and in England I employed a seventh. However. the “Standard” method is to reply five notrump with two aces and a void; to jump to six of a longer-ranking suit with one ace and a void in that suit; or to jump to six of the trump suit with a higher-ranking void and one ace. So, here, if partner jumps to six hearts, showing a spade void and one ace, it would be reasonable for you to bid seven hearts. But I can understand if you are happy with a small slam.